Cube bar staff rescue Poulton family with baby from flat above burning Indian restaurant

Staff at the Cube were finishing their shifts at 4am when a fire broke out at Indian restaurant Seventy One, a few doors down in Breck Road.

Jaylee Spruce, 19, was outside Cube having a vape when the sound of an alarm caught his attention across the road.

“I looked around and flames were bursting out of the building. It was unreal,” said Jay, who alerted his colleagues inside the club.

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Jay swiftly returned to the street with Josh Rodgers, 21, and bar manager George, as the brave trio rushed to the rescue of a family sleeping in the flat above the burning restaurant.

“Josh and George are both ex-military, so they didn’t think twice. They ran over to the fire with me and started breaking down the doors to get them out,” said Jay.

“They smashed the door down and ran upstairs to raise the alarm. The people inside the flat - there were seven of them - they didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“They had a baby with them and didn’t realise how serious the fire was downstairs. We just kept shouting, “Get out! Get out! You need to get out NOW!”

Thanks to their courage and quick-thinking, Jay, Josh and George managed to get everyone out safely and avoid a Christmas tragedy.

Jay said: “I’m just glad we were able to help. We were in the right place at the right time. It literally caught fire as I was finishing my shift.

“I knew we couldn’t just hang around and wait for the fire crews. The smoke was already really bad and I knew we needed to get those people out of the flat straight away.

“They had no idea what was happening in the restaurant below them. God know’s what would have happened if we hadn’t been around when it burst into flames.”

Fire crews arrived at the scene minutes later and tackled the blaze with hose reels. No injuries were reported.

Lancashire Police said an investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.

A spokesperson for the fire service said: “At 4.02am, three fire engines from Blackpool and Bispham attended a commercial property fire on Breck Road, Poulton-le-Fylde.

“Firefighters wore breathing apparatus and used two hose reels to extinguish the fire.”

A police spokesperson added: “A joint investigation into the cause of the fire is being carried out by police and the fire service, and those enquiries are ongoing.”

If you have any information or CCTV footage, you can call police on 101 quoting log number 0249 of December 8.